So you think Coca Cola is bad for you? Well just the fact that you are asking that question means you are aware that Coke probably isn’t the best thing for you.
Coca-Cola per say is not worse than any other type of cola, like Pepsi, or generic branded cola. It’s also not that much worse than root beer, or other candy like soft drinks. I say it’s like candy because colas are full of sugar. The reality is, they are all pretty bad for you. Diet colas are also not very good for you due to their Aspartame content although they are probably better than regular colas.
I’ll begin with diet soft drinks. Aspartame is the common ingredient in all fake sugar, Equal, NutraSweet, Spoonful, etc…. For the most part Aspartame isn’t going to hurt you if you have the occasional diet soft drink. However people have had some pretty scary symptoms after drinking Aspartame such as: seizures, breathing difficulties, memory loss, nausea, headaches, and a host of other symptoms. Aspartame can trigger some chronic illnesses as well like: brain tumors, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, and Epilepsy. I won’t get into too much detail on why Aspartame is damaging, but basically Aspartame can build up calcium in certain neurons on your brain, making if difficult for your brain to send messages to various parts of your body via these neurons. The neurons die due to over stimulation.
All that and it was just diet colas, now lets move on to regular colas. Sugar is a significant ingredient that will harm you. Massive amounts of sugar in anything will cause bodily harm. Aside from bringing on Diabetes, excess amounts of sugar will increase your body weight, which makes your body work harder just to function daily. This added stress is hard on most of your organs.
Colas also contain ethylene glycol, which is used in anti-freeze. Ethylene glycol is a slow poison, it won’t kill you if you have it in small quantities but it will kill you in large quantities. That doesn’t mean the small quantities are totally harmless however, your body has to work hard to protect itself from various poisons, and these battles often leave scars. The more scars on any given organ, the weaker it is and the less likely it is to function in old age.
The last major reason cola’s are bad for you is the extremely high acidity. The pH for colas is around 3.4, strong enough to dissolve teeth and bones. The acid is also due to high mineral contents, and guys, high mineral intake can lead to, *gulp*, kidney stones. Not to mention that the high acid level is the main cause of tooth decay. That’s right it’s not the sugar in coke that will cause cavities it’s the high acidity.
There is also a secret ingredient, although I doubt it’s significantly harmful, it’s called Merchandise 7X
Here’s a couple links to opposing view points on if you should drink Coke: